Mark Williamson node.ue@gmail.com, wikipedia-l@Wikimedia.org schrieb am 10.07.05 16:12:26:
As it so happens, it appears Heiko sends all communication in Hochdeutsch, occasionally proceeded by "moin moin" to make it sound more Platt-ish. Slomox, the other most active current admin, is also not a native speaker of Low Saxon (but rather Hochdeutsch),
With these people running this nokieksel op 't patentplatt, it's no wonder it's... in patentplatt.
It really looks like the Low Saxon edition of Wikipedia has not yet achieved the level of language quality it should have. On the other hand many of the deficits are due to the fact that the Platt spoken nowadays in most areas is highly influenced by High German.
Also, the nds.wiki mainpage says it's in Plattdüütsch (ie, flat german)... and in parenthesis after it says "Plattdüütsch", it says "neddersassisch un oostnedderdüütsch" (Low Saxon and East Low German). Hmm... according to the ISO, "nds" does not include East Low German. Only Low Saxon. Seems this Wikipedia is not in accordance...
I noticed quite a while ago that this could cause a lot of confusion, especially among people from abroad. Generally, people in Northern Germany uniformly refer to their multiple regional or local dialects as "Platt" or "Plattdüütsch", in High German we say "Plattdeutsch" or "Platt" and sometimes in more formal, written High German the term "Niederdeutsch" is used (to avoid the somewhat negative connotation of "flat"). This refers, as far as I know, to all dialects from the Dutch border to the Polish border (except the Frisian ones, of course). While people are well aware of the existance of many different dialects a distinction between Low Saxon and East Low German dialects is not made among the "general public". Everything is perceived as "Platt(deutsch)".
Interestingly, the term "Low Saxon" which we use so frequently here (because that`s the term used in English and apparently in Dutch, too) is _never_ used in Germany, only in scientific contexts. It seems like the somewhat clumsy headline on the nds homepage was chosen in order to include users from the Netherlands (who would be excluded by solely using the term plattdüütsch because the "German" part would alienate them).
Boris
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